Sixers Stunner! They upset Heat, expectations (with video)

76ers rookie guard Michael Carter-Williams gets pressure from Miami’s Chris Bosh during the first half of the home team’s season opener Wednesday night, which ended in a 144-110 upset of the defending NBA champs. (AP Photo/The Wilmington News-Journal, Suchat Pederson )

PHILADELPHIA — With expectations low and emotions high, the 76ers did Wednesday what no one in the building, in the city or in the league thought they could.

They scored — in bunches. They took shots — and made them. Their first 12 attempts went in. They hustled relentlessly. They got out on the break repeatedly. They defended, too. And they did all of that against the two-time defending champion Miami Heat.

The green light on the Sixers’ season had flickered, and go, go, go they went.

An offensive outpouring in the first quarter rolled into a similarly surprising second quarter, with the Sixers forcing fans out of their seats and forcing Miami coach Erik Spoelstra to consider his personnel on the floor a smidge differently.

Most at Wells Fargo Center had to be counting out the Sixers, expecting them to succumb. Not on this night. In what is sure to be a bumpy season, the Sixers stunned Miami, 114-110, to help secure Brett Brown’s first win as an NBA head coach.

“It feels like there’s a sense of belief. It feels like there’s a sense they can take a hit and get back up,” said Brown, whose Sixers led by 22 and trailed by as many as nine. “It’s early days and this is in perspective, but … to go down to a team like the Miami Heat and find some chemistry and find a way to get back in it is tremendous.”

Michael Carter-Williams hit three of four free throws in the final minutes to seal it.

Carter-Williams was huge, setting the NBA record for steals in a debut. The rookie finished with 22 points, 12 rebounds and nine steals. Spencer Hawes logged 24 points and nine rebounds and Evan Turner tossed in 26 points.

Carter-Williams scored the first bucket of his career off a steal, capping it with a breakaway dunk. He never looked back.

“I definitely felt more confident” after that, Carter-Williams said. “I was able to get some steals. My shot was on. That was a plus. We had guys cutting to the hoop and I was able to pass it to them and they were able to finish. It was a good night. Everything was clicking. It’s all about how we can consistently play together.”

There’s no doubt a larger-than-anticipated crowd of 19,523, coupled with the emotion of Allen Iverson’s retirement press conference earlier in the day, provided a jolt for the home team. And while their initial lead against the Heat didn’t last, they rallied and won a game they largely were counted out of. It showed that the phenomenon of tanking is not something to which the Sixers have wholly prescribed.

Not yet, at least.

But Carter-Williams said he was playing for something beyond a victory.

“It’s a really close family friend of mine. Her niece passed away and she was really close to us,” he said. “It was a sad day, but it was great – a little ‘rest in peace’ for her. I was thinking about her today. I dedicated the game to her, my whole family, her whole family.”

The Sixers scored the game’s first 19 points and led by as many as 22 points, at 26-4, seven minutes into the game, following a 3-pointer from Tony Wroten. That ridiculous run to christen the game, and the season, included a breakaway dunk and a pull-up 3-pointer from Carter-Williams, who played fearlessly throughout.

After the Sixers had knocked down their first 11 looks from the floor, Spoelstra called a timeout to speak to his guys. And whatever he said to the Heat finally manifested in the second and third quarters.

The magic of which the Sixers looked to be in possession was nowhere to be found in the second quarter, when they missed their first 11 shots. The Heat outscored the Sixers, 80-52, in the middle quarters … and still found a way to lose.

The Sixers refused to go away, even after Miami’s Ray Allen knocked down a trio of treys in the final minute of the third quarter, giving the Heat their largest lead, at 94-85.

Something miraculous happened in the fourth quarter: Brown’s guys starting making shots. A 3-point play from Turner and a driving layup by James Anderson cut the Sixers’ deficit to 107-104 with 4:01 remaining in the game. Hawes paired a 3-pointer and a transition layup to give the Sixers a 109-108 lead. And MCW, of course, made his shots at the line.

Everything came together for the Sixers.

“The stats speak for themselves,” Brown said of Carter-Williams. “It’s littered across many categories. … Look at that stat line. He was very, very good.”